Escaping Oblivion
by lthom950
Summary: Landon and his friends find themselves trapped in Cyrodiil and are plagued by visits from a mysterious man.


_The man in my dream was strange. The way he moved was like a slither, but not a snake's slither. He was slithering up and down like a dragon in a new year's festival. He wore white robes that were bright beyond description. I couldn't make out the details of his face, and I wasn't sure if that was because of the dream or the man himself._

"_Hello, Landon." He spoke softly. "Do not be afraid. I am your friend. I need your help."_

_The empty blackness around us changed. I saw glimpses of a great and terrible war. Brother killed brother, father killed son, and villages were left smoking after hordes of monsters marched through them. "This is my world." He said, sadness obvious in his voice. "I have worked without end, trying to stop the terrors that surround me, but have had no luck in doing so."_

_I glanced around. The scene got more horrendous as I watched. "Why are you showing this to me?"_

"_Because you are the only one who can stop it."_

"_What? Why?"_

_The man ignored my question. He drew a symbol in the air, black like ink on parchment. The symbol was like a curved T with tumors. It had a round A on top and a circle on the right side. "Remember this sigil." He said as if it held the utmost importance. After he had drawn the sigil, the sigil and the man began to fade away._

"_Wait!" I yelled._

_My objection gave no prevail. The man was gone. The fighting around me continued. Soon I began to change and become like the others. Instead of my blue V-neck shirt and jeans, I wore armor and a magnificent sword hung at my side. _

_Soon I joined in the fight, and was killing hundreds of monsters and enemy soldiers. Before long though, I tired, and the last thing I saw was a great monster, and his hammer was falling down on my unprotected head._

_XXX_

I sat anxiously on the leather couch, watching the clock as the numbers slowly changed. It was four fifty. The party would begin in ten minutes. I double-checked to make sure everything was in place. The chips and soda were on the counter. Controllers sat by the T.V, fully charged. The game was in the Wii, ready to go. I was ready for a night of games with my friends.

It was five minutes before the first guest arrived. When I opened the door my best friend Zach stood on the porch. "Sup." He said, as I let him into the house.

"Hey. What you up to?" I asked.

"Nothing much." He casually made his way to the couch and sat down. "Am I the first one here?"

"Yeah." I replied. I sat own next to him, grabbing the remote from behind the couch.

"What do you want to do?" I said, turning on the T.V that hung on the wall across from us.

"I don't know." He said. I looked over. He was checking Facebook on his phone. It annoyed me when people looked at their phone when they should be spending time enjoying themselves.

"I have Halo, Smash Bros., what do you want to play?"

"We could play Halo." He shuffled, putting the phone in his pocket. I got up to turn the Xbox on when the doorbell rang again. "I'll get that. You want to turn the on Xbox?"

He grabbed the controller and pressed the middle button. "Done."

I shook my head, and walked towards the door. My friend Taylor stood at the door. "Hello, my friend!" He exclaimed, raising his hands in the air. I pushed the door open and allowed him to come inside.

"Hello, Taylor!" I yelled, mocking his enthusiasm. He walked in and jumped down on the couch next to Zach. His glasses fell down his nose and he adjusted them.

"Hello, my friend!" He yelled, patting Zach on the shoulder.

"We're gonna play Halo. You okay with that?" I asked as I pushed the button to open the tray. He nodded and I fished the game out that was in the Xbox already. The title of the game was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I reached for the case that sat in the middle of a messy pile of games. I pried it open, and pushed the disk into its place.

As I was about to shut the case, there was black writing in the case that caught my eye. I opened the case again, and looked where I had saw the writing. Written there, was a column made with the names of everyone at the party. Next to it, was the symbol I had seen in my dream about a week ago. I had forgotten about it, but now, as it was here before me, the memory was fresh in my mind.

"What the heck?"

"What is it?" Zach asked from the couch.

"I don't-" My fingers rubbed the symbol, and everything around us changed.

_XXX_

The rapid change around us caused me to get sick, and black out for a moment. When I came to, my friends and I were in a cell. Zach sat at an old, wooden table, while Taylor and I laid on the floor. By the looks on their faces, I could tell they felt just as sick as I did.

I waited for the nausea to pass before I stood. When I felt better, I got up and looked around the room. The sudden movement sent pain through my skull. The cell we were in was small. The walls were made of stone, and the floor appeared to be covered in sand. Bones sat in the corner, as if someone had been forgotten down here.

I stepped toward the steel gates that held back my freedom. Across the cell from me was a man, with long white hair and pale green skin. He had pointed ears and sat in chair by the door. When he saw me he stood and walked over to the steel bars that closed his cell. He grabbed them and leaned in, as if to get a better look at me. When he could finally see my face his expression changed, and a smug look crept across his face. "Hmm… Pale skin, snotty expression. You're a Breton! The masters of magicka, right? Hmph. Nothing but a bunch of stuck-up snobs with cheap parlor tricks. Go ahead, try your magicka in here. Let's see you make those bars disappear. No? What's the matter? Not so powerful now, are you Breton? You're not leaving this prison 'til they throw your body in the lake. Oh, that's right. You're going to die in here, Breton! You're going to die! "

He took a look past me and saw Zach sitting in the chair behind me. "My, my, you're not that much of a big one. I'd still make you out to be a Nord, I'd guess, right? Strong... But you can't bend steel, can you boy? You can't do anything to get out of here. And those big muscles? They're going to waste away. When the end comes, you won't even have the strength to cry for your mother."

He took a look down at Taylor on the floor. "Oh, look, an Imperial in the Imperial Prison. I guess they don't play favorites, huh? Your own kinsmen think you're a piece of human trash. How sad. I bet the guards give you "special" treatment before the end. Imperial criminal scum like you give the Empire a bad name, you see. You're an embarrassment. Best if you just... disappeared. You're all going to die in here! You're going to die!"

"Yeah, whatever. Small dog, tiny annoying yipper. Why don't you go back to eating your puppy chow!" I yelled from my cell. His face was stunned. I guessed that was the first time anyone had stood up to him. A door shut at the top of a set of stairs next to the man's cell. An elderly man spoke, sadness obvious in his voice, "My sons...they're dead, aren't they?"

A younger woman, whose voice held much authority spoke, reassuringly, "We don't know that, Sire. The messenger only said they were attacked."

"No, they're dead. I know it"

"My job right now is to get you to safety."

"I know this place ... the prison?"

"Yes, you're Majesty. Beneath the Legion Compound. We're headed for a secret passage known only to the Blades. No one can follow us through here."

Three men and a woman appeared before our cell. An elderly man, the voice I had heard earlier, was dressed in fine silk robes, and an amulet was strung across his neck. The other three all wore nice, steel armor, which resembled samurai armor.

One of the men pointed at us and said, "Hey, prisoners, stand up and move towards the window. We won't hesitate to kill you if we have too."

The three of us obliged, and stepped back. The elderly man was escorted into our cell, and we he passed us he stopped. He looked at all of us carefully. "You ... I've seen you... Let me see your face... You are the ones from my dreams... Then the stars were right, and this is the day. Gods give me strength."


End file.
